Epoxy resins have been prepared from amides as disclosed in U.S. Pat. No. 3,798,242 (Batzer et al.), U.S. Pat. No. 3,904,658 (Batzer et al.) and U.S. Pat. No. 2,730,531 (Payne et al.). However, these resins suffer such deficiencies as poor cure rates with conventional epoxy resin curing agents, do not readily self-cure and are difficult to prepare which results in poor yields with more undesirable side reaction products.
It has now been discovered that the epoxy resins of the present invention will self-cure at elevated temperatures, cure with conventional epoxy resin curing agents resulting in high temperature performance properties. The resins of the present invention are typically crystalline in character with sharp melting points and low melt viscosities which renders them particularly suitable for powder coating applications and injection molding applications.